Paul di Resta said his result in Bahrain on Sunday was as like a win for his team after their difficult week.

Following Force India's worst performance of the season in China eight days ago, Di Resta equalled his highest race finish in Formula One with sixth at the Bahrain International Circuit as the team pulled together after their earlier travails.

After four team members were caught up in Bahrain's anti-government protests on Wednesday en route to capital Manama from the track, two personnel decided to fly home, citing safety reasons. The team then decided not to run in second practice on Friday for the security of the remainder of their staff.

There are suggestions that withdrawing from the race altogether was considered, but rejected, which if true was vindicated by Di Resta's display over the weekend.

After qualifying 10th, the Scot then made a two-stop strategy work to perfection, while all those around him opted for three, bringing home eight points to lift him to 10th in the drivers' championship.

"It was an outstanding performance by every member of the team this weekend, and under difficult circumstances," said Di Resta. "It's been difficult for every team member, but everyone of them has stood up. They played everything right: strategy, pit stops, I worked with my engineer to dial the car in right and the track came to us.

"Sixth position for us is a massive achievement, probably the same for us as Sebastian [Vettel] winning the race given the car we have. Looking at everybody's performance, we've stepped things up, tried to do our best and probably outperformed any performance we've ever had as a team."

The team could have been forgiven for expressing a sense of relief come the end of the race, and in finally heading home. Instead, deputy team principal Bob Fernley, the man charged with making the difficult decisions this past week, admitted to "a feeling of pride".

"We addressed something, we restructured our programme and we delivered," Fernley said. "I think that goes to show the depth of the team through what has been quite a challenging weekend. Paul's result was tremendous. The boys and girls went through a tough few days, but it took all of them to deliver for him."